


Bendystiltskin

by theAlmostPorcupine



Series: The BATIM Multiverse [3]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine, Rumpelstilzchen | Rumpelstiltskin (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Family Fluff, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 02:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18489112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theAlmostPorcupine/pseuds/theAlmostPorcupine
Summary: In the universe where the cartoonish version of Joey Drew Studios is a story for Bendy, the little devil darling has a good relationship with his demonic father. But one day, his dad decides that it’s time to get him a human mother. As the full-grown demon tries his luck at dating, he prepares his young son for a mother-son relationship by creating another story world for him: a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.





	Bendystiltskin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Writing_Like_Ill_Die](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writing_Like_Ill_Die/gifts).



> This is the prize one-shot based off Chapter 56 of Choose Your Ink.

Bendy loved living just him and his dad. Mostly. Except for when his dad was off fulfilling demon deals or whatever. Which was all the time.

So maybe he didn’t like being alone, but when his dad _was_ home, he would draw for him, wrestle him on the living room’s thick rug, and use his powers to create sprawling story worlds for him before bed. Sometimes, his dad would fall asleep on his bed with him afterward. The young demon loved to hear his dad’s calm heartbeat in his dreams.

One Sunday after his dad woke up, he scooped Bendy up and carried him to their square table. He had a photo album on it. “I want you to meet someone.”

Bendy climbed into a smooth-carved chair and looked through the black-and-white pictures. Many of them had his father with his arm wrapped around a female demon with shorter horns and a tail. Bendy pointed to her and looked up at his dad.

“That’s your mother. We’re going to visit her today.”

They did. Bendy’s dad opened a portal to a world of hot, barren black stone hills, where they walked until they reached a yard of metal spikes. He led them in and sat them in front of one, on which was painted white runes.

Bendy blinked and pointed at the runes.

His dad leaned to rub his thumb beside the characters. “They give her true demonic name. I’ll tell you about it once you’re old enough to learn yours.”

The little demon opened his jaw and stared at his dad. His real name wasn’t Bendy?

But his father’s eyes stayed on the spike. “It’s been years. I still miss her. Sometimes, I wonder what things would be like if she were still alive. She’d probably sing and joke with you.”

Sing? Bendy tugged on his father’s shirt until he had his attention. He moved his mouth and patted his bow tie, directly under his missing neck.

His father deflated. “I know, buddy. I’ve looked at the magic that’s supposed to power your voice, and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s probably because it’s so rough on you to have one parent. If there were such a thing as a demon woman who’d treat some other’s fledgling well….”

Bendy turned away from his dad and buried his head in his knees.

“Maybe we should go back to the surface. It’s not safe here for someone so young.”

  


Once again, he woke up in his son’s bed, the little imp pressed beside him. He patted the child’s head. “I always get the best deals from animation studios – overworked artists pressed to make their deadlines. I’ve got one today – not as good as the deal that let your mother and I bring you to life – but I can work from home for once. I’ll be in my office if you need me. I’ll leave you some breakfast on the table.”

He wasn’t sure if Bendy heard him: z’s were still floating from the little devil’s mouth, as they should from any cartoon character’s. He covered Bendy with his blanket, cooked some bacon, and got to work.

He locked himself in his office until lunch.

Around noon, he found Bendy at the table, staring at a plate of scorched bacon crumbs as he squeaked his Edgar the Spider doll against the table. His pie-cut eyes had faded to gray.

He reached for the back of Bendy’s head and rubbed. “Are you feeling alright? You’re not sick, are you?”

Bendy leaned into the touch. He grinned up at him, eyes returning to their normal black. He bounced in his seat and twisted around, reaching for his shoulders. The little imp used him as a makeshift jungle gym.

He caught Bendy as he slid down his leg and had him mouth _ah._ His mouth was dark as usual, and his tongue was its correct white. His forehead was as cool as ever. “If you’re not sick, is this what you do all day when I’m gone? Sit at the table and hit your toys against it?”

Bendy zipped off and came right back with their cat-sized radio, the device roaring and the child bouncing to the beat. He pointed at him.

“You want me to dance too?”

Bendy nodded.

He danced along as he ushered his son to the fridge. He hummed as he picked out some lunch meat. He and Bendy made and ate several sandwiches together before he had to get back to work.

His son tugged on his arm with teary eyes, but he had a deadline to meet. He patted his head and went back to his home office.

For the next hour, he outlined and inked at demonic speed. His hands came away black and throbbing, so he got up and stretched. On his break, he peeked into the kitchen.

Bendy was sitting there, introducing Edgar to a picture of his mother. The child’s movements were sluggish, and his head was drooping.

As he observed his child, his claws dug into the door frame: Bendy really needed a mother to look after him while he was working.

  


Days later, Bendy heard the front door open. He jumped up, ran down the stairs, and went to greet his dad.

As he wrapped himself around his father’s legs, his dad rubbed his horns. “Hey, buddy. I got a new book for you. But first, wanna help me pick out a tie?”

Blinking, Bendy agreed. He helped his dad a red cotton tie with black and white circles on it.

Whistling Bendy’s favorite tune, his dad stepped into the bathroom. He came out wearing the glamour of a young human man with brown hair and eyes. He wore a nice button up and a pair of tweed pants. He tied the tie around his neck and completed the outfit with winged shoes and a hat. “I look good, don’t I?”

Bendy grinned.

His dad picked him up and took him to his room. Once there, he waved his hand and summoned a picture book in a ball of flame: “Rumplestiltskin.”

He reached for its red-and-purple castle cover.

His dad held it above his head. “Not so fast: we’re having this as one of our special stories today. And besides, the name of this story is….” He tapped the title, which changed to “Bendystiltskin.” Now he brought the book down and let Bendy get a better look at the cover.

The cover’s picture was changing before his eyes. Its colors faded to black and white. The blonde woman on its cover was replaced by another Toon from Bendy’s show: Alice Angel, only she was missing her horns and her halo.

Bendy did a jig.

His dad smiled. “Excited?”

Bouncing, Bendy clapped his hands.

His dad chuckled. “In this story, _Bendystiltskin_ will act like a lesser version of your true name. It’s a magic word that will make stuff happen, so take good care of it.” He started taking dolls from the toy chest.

Bendy helped.

When they were done, his dad pulled him to his chest. “I’ll set the world up and animate the dolls for you, but I can’t stay. I have a date. Think you can play by yourself?”

He was leaving already? But he just got home!

Bendy dug his gloves into his dad’s shirt, but his dad pried his fingers off. He crossed Bendy’s arms. “I have to go. I have a date.”

He growled. It was bad enough that his dad had _work_ that took him away, and now he had a thing called _a date!_

His dad sat him on his bed, but still he growled at him. His dad met his eyes. “I’m trying to find you a mother. I think you’ll be a lot happier once you have one. Go inside and see what a child means to a mother.”

He narrowed his eyes. Who needs a mother when she takes your dad away?

“I will bring you back a treat, but right now, I need you to stay here and play for me.”

His dad wasn’t giving him a choice, was he? He gave his father a small nod.

“That’s my strong boy.” His dad rubbed his head. “I’m proud of you.”

In a wave of his father’s hand, Bendy’s bed turned into a large rock, and his bedroom became the space below a giant tree’s roots. It smelled like ink. Typical for his dad’s cartoons.

On a little table was a pen and notepad, the name _Bendystiltskin_ written out across a page in a medieval script. The little demon hopped up and explored the space.

The first thing he found was a mirror that showed him as a human boy with black hair. He stuck out one very pink tongue. Human? He didn’t mind humans, but he wasn’t one! Why did he have to look like one of them?

Crossing his arms, he focused on what little magic he’d learned until he could look in the mirror and have his normal black-and-white face and two pie-cut eyes grin back at him. He ran around the apartment to look for toys, and he found only a reminder from the Elf King that rent was due.

He grinned anyway. This story had him living in a tree, so if he climbed it, he could tear up a paper like this to make it snow on the next passerby.

Outside, he looked at his tree. It was by a broad dirt path, and a leafy branch hung above that road. Digging his feet into the texture lines, he made the branch. From here, he looked around. He couldn’t see any passersby yet, but he could see a big castle nearby with stupidly open windows near the forest. Dreaming of pranks he could pull on the castle inhabitants, Bendy settled on the branch to wait for a victim.

  


If no demon woman could love another’s fledgling, he would have to look among the humans. It was the logic he used days before, when he asked the blonde sitting across from him for a date. Smirking at inner suspicions of the situation, he asked, “You mentioned your mother had another child when you were fifteen? What’s that like?”

“Mother sent Gail away to live with her sister. It couldn’t be helped – Mother’s health is poor, and Auntie could never have any children of her own. Gail’s sweet enough, but I wish she was cute like Shirley Temple. You watch her movies?” The blonde cut a stalk of asparagus. “You do like theater, don’t you?”

He was sure he’d mentioned the career of his Henry Stein persona to her. “I’ve worked in animation.”

“Oh, _cartoons!_ Like Koko the clown? Or the shorts that run before movies? Now that would be a fun family outing someday – mother, father, kids at the theater, bring some wine in from outside for us all to drink.”

He frowned. “Wine for the kids?”

“Sure. We adults shouldn’t keep the good stuff all to ourselves.”

  


He dropped his date off early and returned with a box of leftover steak and an after-dinner mint for his son. When he got home, he went into Bendy’s room and implemented himself into the story. He knocked on the trunk of the tree he gave Bendy, but there was no answer.

His little imp must have figured out to go to the castle.

He circled around to the road.

A flutter of paper shreds landed in his hair, and he heard voiceless giggling above his head. He looked up, and there was Bendy. “There you are. I brought you some food.”

Bendy leaped down, and he caught the little devil in his arms. His child clung to him.

He procured the box. “Here. I’m just going to change down, and then we can play. I know tonight was hard for you. I’m going to have to go on more dates, but it might be a bit – I’ve got to find someone better for us first.”

  


Two weeks later, Bendy’s dad left for another _date._ Once again, he was left in the world of “Bendystiltskin.”

He spent the time throwing pebbles at squirrels. This time, he learned how his dolls’ appearance was altered in this world – they were his size or larger, inky rather than fabric. He learned because his Charley doll came riding up to his tree on a stinky horse.

But Charley had ears pointier than normal, and antlers stuck from his head. His wet nose narrowed and twitched. “I know you’re here. I can smell you! Where’s my rent?”

He looked up. Rent? But this was a forest, right? Why pay rent to live in a tree? He crossed his arms and growled at Charley.

“Don’t give me that! I told you it’s due.” Charley took a piece of paper from his robes and waved it in front of his face. “One human child right now, or I give you this eviction notice!”

His eyes widened. He grabbed hold of Charley’s robes and made puppy-dog eyes at the playtime Elf King.

Charley yanked his robes away.

He started sniffling.

Crossing his arms, Charley asked, “You need an extension, don’t you?”

He nodded.

“Fine. I’ll give you a week to prove that you can pay, or else I burn your tree down with you in it!”

As Charley rode off, Bendy glared at his back. A demonic urge filled his ink, an urge for vengeance.

Someone needed a pie in the face, or a banana peel underfoot, or a bed full of frogs. Yeah… he just needed to find a bed to fill with frogs. He ran to the castle to do just that.

Or he meant to anyway. He climbed up a tree and through a window easily enough, but he got distracted exploring the castle, hiding from servants, and falling asleep in a tower full of straw.

At some point, his eyes peeked open as warm arms picked him up. His dad was smiling at him, and he set him down in his red-striped sheets. Bendy curled into the teddy bear his dad placed beside him and relaxed under his soft covers. His dad bent and kissed his cheek. “Good night.”

  


Bendy noticed his dad smiling and humming a lot more the next few days. The adult also spent more time laughing on the phone, and when he played with Bendy, he was livelier.

One day, he popped up in Bendy’s bedroom after work and ambushed him. His soft fingers brushed against Bendy’s stomach.

Bendy curled up. He wheezed. His wheezing became a silent fit. Then…. “Tee hee hee hee hee!”

His dad stopped. So did he.

Eyes glowing like embers, his dad asked asked, “You want to see if you can do that again?”

He nodded.

His dad reached for his stomach.

“Tee hee hee!”

His dad scooped him up. “You’ve got a new sound! I’m proud of you. I’ve got a date tonight, but tomorrow, just you and me, we’re getting ice cream. How’s that sound?”

Bendy grinned.

  


Once again, he was left in the world of “Bendystiltskin” for the evening. This time, he had some frogs to catch. Time flew as he gathered the amphibians from a nearby well and hauled them into the castle.

He was sneaking out when he heard sobbing in the dungeon tower. He peered through the keyhole.

Inside was Alice, with a human Toon appearance like on the book cover; and a spinning wheel.

The door was locked, so he called a trick back from his Ink Demon days and made an ink portal to get in. He sat at the angel’s side and put a hand on her elbow.

She looked at him. “Little thing, how did you get in here?”

Bendy answered with his new giggle.

“What?”

Bendy got on all fours and leaped like a frog. “Tee hee hee hee!”

Alice shook her head. “Glad _you_ had fun being thrown in here.”

He blinked at her, but she just hung her head. “My father got me thrown in here. He bragged that I can sew straw into gold, so the king wanted to see if it’s true. He’ll kill me in the morning when I can’t turn all the straw in this room to gold.”

As Alice went back to sobbing, Bendy got to thinking. Then he got an idea.

First to test it.

He pulled his notebook from his hammer space, the one that had _Bendystiltskin_ written across the first page. Maybe this is what his dad meant by that name doing stuff? The little devil pressed the page against the straw.

No luck.

He loaded some straw into the spinning wheel and put the page to the wheel.

The notebook grew a mouth, which it opened. “Bendystiltskin.”

Bendy checked the bit of straw poking out from the needle. It was gold.

Grinning, he tugged on Alice’s dress and pointed to the spinning wheel. She gasped on finding the gold in the spinning wheel. “Did you do this?”

He beamed.

“Can you help me?”

The little demon pulled a spare page from his notebook and got out his pen. She needed the straw turned to gold. He needed a human child. Surely they could help each other?

But no, human children needed time to produce. He only needed to prove by the end of the week that he could pay. What he needed was the right to her first-born child.

Sticking his tongue out, the little demon began to write the contract. When he handed it to Alice, it too grew a mouth and started speaking.

The doll teared up again. “There’s got to be some other way I can pay you.”

He shook his head.

Trembling, she took the pen. “If it’s that or die in the morning, I have to sign.” She drew a drooping X on the bottom of the page.

As Alice spun, Bendy pressed his page to the wheel for the rest of the night in a chorus of _Bendystiltskin, Bendystiltskin._ He barely managed to get back to his tree and post the contract to his door as proof of payment for the Elf King before his eyelids were too heavy to keep open.

When his father came home, he was asleep under damp roots.

  


He promised to take his son out for ice cream, so take him out he did. He took him out to the mid-ocean, where no humans or demons could bother them, and summoned the ice cream.

Just the next night, he dropped Bendy off in the land of “Bendystiltskin” again and left for his date. Before he got out of the car, he checked his breath, straightened his red bow tie, and made sure all the hair of his human guise was in place.

This was a fifth date. He was thinking of asking this woman to be his girlfriend, so he’d brought along a little present for her. He circled the car and got a foot-long Bendy plushy from the passenger’s seat.

He checked its condition too. He knew the doll smelled new and the stitches were good, but he pulled a little black fuzz from the car’s seat covers off the plushy’s horns.

The demon strolled up the driveway and rang the bell. He greeted her with his son’s image.

The woman pulled him and the plushy to her chest, her green eyes sparkling. “Is it one of your characters?”

He nodded. “He’s my little Bendy. I’m proud of him.”

  


When his dad set him up in the story world, Bendy lingered in his tree just long enough to glare at the human in his reflection and break his glamour. He grinned at his usual cute black-and-white self and booked it to the castle, snatching the contract from the door on his way out.

As he climbed through a castle window, there was a soft singing. A smile spreading across his face, Bendy practically floated to the bedchambers, where he stopped and lingered in a doorway.

Inside, his Alice doll had a bundle of blankets in her arms, and she was stroking at a baby's forehead. “…mockingbird don’t sing, Momma’s gonna buy you a diamond ring. If that diamond ring turns to brass, Momma’s gonna buy you a looking glass….”

The song soothed Bendy like a good rub between the horns, and he was content to stand and listen. But Alice was walking and turning as she sang to her child, and when she turned, she stopped. Her eyes widened. She clutched her child to her chest and backed away from Bendy. “I know I signed your contract, but I had no choice! I am not giving away my child to suffer at your hands.”

Suffer? Bendy was just trying to pay rent. He stepped into the room and held out his arms.

Alice backed away until she hit the stone wall. Her eyes glistened. “Are you heartless? I will give you anything else instead: my possessions, my talent, my life. Just not my child.” Tears fell from her eyes. “I should have chosen to die that next morning.”

Bendy unrolled the contract, hands trembling. If he didn’t get the child, hadn’t the Elf King threatened to burn him inside his tree? He closed his eyes, stepped forward, and held his arms out for the baby.

Something soft touched his head. It was one of Alice’s gloves. Her eyes were on his face. “You’re frightened.”

He nodded. He raised his arms a bit, but he couldn’t just demand the baby.

“You need my child.” Alice said this, but she made no move to give it to him.

He nodded again.

She wiped a tear from his eye that he didn’t know he had shed. “I’m sorry for whatever situation it is you’re in, but I can’t hand over someone I love so much. Please, release me from the contract.”

Bendy brought the contract to his eye level. He glanced over its top at Alice, and tore at the paper.

It wouldn’t rip.

His eyes widened and he looked to Alice for help.

She was silent for a moment. Then… “Is it that you need a condition to release me?”

But Bendy was too young to know how this demonic contract stuff worked. He could only shrug.

The last of Alice’s tears dried up. “Let’s see. Why did you try to take my child in the first place? Is it that you have no one that cares about you?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer that. He knew his dad loved him, but what about within this story world? Why was he living alone in a tree?

“What if… what if someone cared about you enough to say your name? If I can guess your name, will you try destroying the contract again?”

He agreed.

She smiled. “Alright. How many guesses do I have?”

Bendy held up three fingers.

Alice walked across the room and set her child in a cushioned crib. She touched Bendy’s shoulder and led him from the room, explaining, “You don’t ever want to wake a sleeping baby.” She led him to a small room instead that had a spinning wheel and a couple stools.

The doll sat Bendy down a plucked leaves from his bow. “What are you? A brownie?”

No. He kept shaking his head until she guessed imp, at which point, he tapped his horns and grinned.

“What sort of name does an imp have anyway? Something Latin? Something chaotic-sounding?”

Shaking his head, he got up and knelt beside the spinning wheel. He held his contract to it.

Alice joined him. “What’s that? Something treasure-related? Is your name Golder?”

He shook his head again.

“Rich? Is your name Richard, or at least something that can be shortened to Rich?”

Bendy held his hands up and shook his head furiously. He pressed the contract to the wheel over and over again, miming a whisper-yell at the machine.

Alice pressed her lips together. “Have I heard it before?”

He nodded.

Alice’s mouth formed a little _oh._ “Is your name Bendystiltskin?”

Grinning, Bendy held up his contract and tore it in half. The pieces fluttered to the floor.

Then it hit him: he had no other way to appease the Elf King. He was going to be burned inside his tree. His teeth chattered. His knees knocked together.

Alice was too busy scooping him up in a hug to notice. “Oh, thank you! I will always remember your name, Bendystiltskin.”

When she put him down, he faked a smile at her.

Somewhere below, something creaked. “Alice? Are you up here? I’ve got a surprise for you.”

Bendy cocked his head, raising an eyebrow at Alice.

“That’s my husband, Prince Boris.”

Bendy wasn’t sure what would happen if his ever-hungry wolf doll found him in the castle, but he doubted he’d be pleased. He zipped off with a whistle.

  


His date set her water on the table. “Henry?”

The demon sat up, the cheeks of his human guise turning red. “Sorry. It’s just….”

“I’m so beautiful? You’ve tried that one already tonight. Three times.” The woman leaned forward. “You’ve been acting like there’s something more to it.”

He opened his mouth, but his courage deserted him. He took a breath. “Mind if we go on a walk after dinner?”

She agreed, and he stalled, but he still felt her eyes on him twenty minutes later as he finished his cake.

He took her arm and escorted her through the lamp-lights of wet, gleaming, well-lit streets. Her eyes stayed on his cheek until he finally said, “There’s something I really want to ask you, but there’s something you ought to know first.”

“And what’s that?”

“I’m widowed.” He took a breath, relaxing as he thought of the cute little fledgling waiting for him back home. “My wife and I had a son together. Ben.”

He peeked over at his date. Her face was blank, but her eyes were still on him.

“I wasn’t sure how you’d react, since you have never been around children much.” He placed his hand on hers. “I really like you. I want to ask you to be my girlfriend, but I want to be sure you and Ben can get along. Are you willing to meet him?”

She blinked. “A child? That’s… a new experience for me. When?”

  


His Charley doll grabbed him by his ankles and tossed him into the tree. Moments later, the tree was engulfed in flickering red and orange, and black smoke filled the scene.

He lay on the drying earth, covering his eyes with his hands. Flame licked his horns, but it couldn’t burn a demon.

The fire crackled. Outside, so did the Elf King’s laughter.

Soot covered the child’s face, dusted his horns, and clung to his inky fur. A bit of tree fell on top of him. He hit it aside.

He was still crying when the Elf King was gone and his tree was nothing but ash.

Something soft brushed the charcoal off his back. “Bendystiltskin?”

Bendy pushed himself to all fours and looked at Alice through teary eyes. The doll bent down and wiped his tears. “I saw the smoke. I was worried about you. You’re just an impling, aren’t you?”

He accepted an embrace from her and leaned into her shoulder. She sang a soothing song in his ear, a little like the lullaby he’d heard earlier. Slowly, he stopped sniffling.

Alice pulled out a gray handkerchief and started wiping his face. As she held him there, there was nothing he could do this time as his Boris doll walked over to them, so he buried his head in Alice’s dress.

“This is the little devil who saved you from my father killing you?”

Bendy didn’t hear an answer, but Alice rubbed a circle on his shoulder.

“He doesn’t seem mean.”

The little demon found himself being shifted around on Alice’s lap, steered to look directly at Boris. “This is Bendystiltskin. Bendystiltskin, this is my husband, Prince Boris.”

The prince held out a hand to him. Wide-eyed, Bendy shook it.

Alice stroked his horn, and Bendy leaned into her touch. “Who burned your home? Was it the Elf King?”

How did she know? He shut his jaw and nodded.

“Was it because you didn’t have a human child to give him?”

She had to be magic or something. Maybe she’d kept her angelic powers in this story, never mind that she was playing a human.

Alice’s hand slid down between his horns. “I told you it’s the Elf King taking the village children. It looks like he’s threatening his own kind into kidnapping them. Isn’t there something we can do?”

“We can increase the guards.” Boris looked at Bendy. “Or we can go after the Elf King. We’d need a local guide: every time one of us steps foot in the forest, the forest rearranges itself.”

Bendy grinned. Getting revenge on Charley? He was game for that.

Alice pulled Bendy’s cheek to her own. “There’s something we can do for this little guy too, isn’t there? He just lost his home. Can’t he live with us in the castle instead?”

Ooh, living in a castle? That sounded like fun.

The prince peered into Bendy’s eyes. “As long as he behaves. No more putting frogs into the servants’ beds.”

Bendy agreed, hoping the wolf couldn’t see the fingers he had crossed behind his back.

  


He invited his date to take a seat on the couch. “He’s probably playing upstairs. I’ll get him.”

When he entered the story world to get his son, Bendy was sitting at a Great Hall filled with poultry and venison and other feast foods. He cuddled next to his Alice and Boris dolls, laughing at a tin soldier with a jester hat on his head. “...and long may the Elf King rot!”

Grinning, he waved his hand and froze the scene.

Bendy looked around.

“Hey buddy, did you finish the story?”

Bendy nodded, picked something off the table, and presented it to him.

It was a “dead” Charley doll, back to its original appearance.

“Good job.” He broke the glamour on Bendy’s room. The castle walls became sheet rock. The feast became nothing but carpet. The story characters became scattered dolls. But he put a glamour on Bendy himself to make him seem human. “There’s someone downstairs I want you to meet.”

His little devil raced him down the stairs and ran over to the woman on the couch.

She smiled at him. “You must be _Bendystiltskin._ ” She rubbed at black hair in the place where the child’s horns normally were.

“Tee hee! Tee hee hee!” Bendy dropped the guise instantly, leaving her hand wrapped around the inside of a horn.

He broke his own guise in case he needed to rush to the rescue. He made his eyes glow red and he spread two bat-like wings in full display behind him.

His date froze. “Ben? Ben _dy_?”

Bendy spread his arms open and reached up.

The woman looked over to him, and upon seeing his visage, scooted back. “Don’t eat me!”

Bendy whined. He climbed up on her lap and gave her a hug.

She hugged him back.

But he, he wasn’t as cute as his son. He slipped back into his human guise and took a seat next to the others. “We’re not going to eat you.” He patted Bendy’s head. “Looks like he likes you.”

His date’s face was still pale, and her arms were covered in goosebumps. He could smell the tang of fear coming off her. “When were you going to tell me you’re a de- you’re not human?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Was there a right time to tell you?”

That got him a glare.

“Is it such a big deal? It’s not like I’m after your soul.”

She tensed. “How am I supposed to know that?”

He straightened. “Have I done anything at all to harm you?”

“You lied to me!”

The fight would have gone on, but Bendy stood on the woman’s legs and reached for him, chest heaving, tears flying from his shut eyes. He took his son into his arms.

The woman watched Bendy cling to him. “Is it something I said?”

“It’s ‘cause we were fighting. Children are sensitive.” He rubbed his son’s horn. “I’m sorry. I’ll try not to let you have to see it again.”

Reaching for the back of Bendy’s head, the woman stood up. “Maybe we could see each other _one_ last time. You, me, and Bendy. What do you do with children anyway?”

  


Bendy’s dad brought the woman over Saturday morning, and he had a slim blue-and-yellow box under his arm. His dad smiled so large that the eyes of his human guise seemed to sparkle. “Hey, buddy. I picked up a new game. Just started being sold this month. We’ll play it after brunch.”

His dad rattled the box. _The fashionable ENGLISH GAME “_ _Sorry!”_ it said.

Bendy grinned.

The little devil had a blast. Sure his dad’s almost-girlfriend didn’t stick around his dad anymore after that, but his dad still had a gleam in his eyes. When he got back from dropping the woman off, he bent down. “I think I can really find someone, Bendy. A mother for you. A wife for me. But what do you think: maybe next time I should tell her I’m a demon before I tell her I’m a dad?”

He nodded. He loved living just him and his dad. Mostly. But it sure would be nice to have a mother.


End file.
